KUALA LUMPUR: JUST how badly “contaminated” is the Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 crash site?
As the Malaysian aviation investigation team enter the rebel-held town of Donetsk and begin the grim task of categorising and compiling evidence, the question remains — will the evidence gathered hold up to scrutiny at the International Court of Justice (ICJ)?
From the moment the Boeing 777-200ER impacted the ground near Donetsk, allegedly brought down by an SA-11 missile on July 17, reports have emerged that the crash site had been “contaminated” by looters, scavengers and pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian emergency responders.
Former MAS managing director and chief executive officer Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman said Malaysia would need solid evidentiary documentation to build a case at the ICJ.
“In order to bring the perpetrators to justice, we must first provide the court with some sort of evidence that the plane was attacked,” he said.
Aziz said the case could be thrown out if the government failed to gather evidence, or managed to convince the court that it had secured enough evidence to convict the culprits.
The sanctity of the crash site and the chain of evidence was crucial for a conviction, he said.
“We may have a broken chain of evidence if we do not have the right data that would indicate it was shot down.”
In an agreement brokered by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak yesterday, the pro-Russian rebels handed over the two black boxes to Malaysian investigators.
They also guaranteed the investigators a safe corridor to the crash site and handed over the more than 200 remains recovered so far to the international recovery team. The bodies are expected to reach the Netherlands today.
Meanwhile, a highly placed source in the investigation team said Ukraine was responsible for preserving the crash site as it is the state of occurrence.
However, he said, it was unfortunate that MH17 fell in a region controlled by separatists.
He said the Ukraine government needed to ensure the crash site was well preserved at all times.
“Malaysians must trust that the Ukrainian government will ensure that no tampering occurs at the site.”
Ground zero covers a massive area and contains valuable evidence which holds the truth on how almost 300 people from 11 nations were killed.
“If Ukraine is unable to handle the repercussions of MH17, they need to declare (it) to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and ask Malaysia or an independent body to take over movement of the search-and-recovery mission.”
The source, who has more than 10 years of air crash investigation experience, said once investigations were concluded and claims that the plane was attacked were proven to be true, it would then become a criminal case and be handled by the police.
Universiti Kuala Lumpur research and innovation head Associate Prof Captain Dr Mohd Harridon Mohamed Suffian said the Ukraine department of civil aviation would be responsible for the retrieval of the remains and to safeguard evidence at the crash site.
“The debris should not be moved from the place which it initially landed as it would jeopardise the investigation process.”
“The distance between one (piece of) debris to another would assist the investigation team in the process of identifying the cause of the accident. That is why it is very important that the remains at the crash site must not be tampered with.”
Harridon said that beside the two black boxes, debris analysis was also important, which is why remains from the aircraft should only be gathered by authorised personnel.
Debris collected from the crash sites would go through a reconstruction process by the investigating team, who would look for a “wreckage signature” that would seek to provide information on the cause of the incident.
“Different incidents leave different sorts of crack marks on the airplane. From there, the team would be able to identify the type of missile used to bring down MH17,” he said.
However, Dr Harridon said, the government’s chances of bringing the perpetrators to justice would be low, since the crash site and debris has been tampered by the rebels.
“We need every possible evidence, not only from the black boxes, but also from the debris analysis, to enable prosecution,” he said, adding that the longer it took for investigators to enter the site, the slimmer the chances for them to bring those responsible to justice.